April 19, 2003
Illinois' women's tennis team sent its two seniors out in style Saturday afternoon with a 7-0 win over Indiana at the Atkins Tennis Center in Urbana. With the win the Illini finish the season at 15-6 overall and 8-2 in league play. In addition, Head Coach Sujay Lama's troops posted a .714 winning percentage which ranks as the best in program history.
"Michelle and Eldina have accomplished a lot in their four years," Lama said. "They are the reason that our program is nationally ranked as well as being one of the top Big Ten teams, but more importantly, I feel like their work ethic and leadership has been the difference this year."
The Illini won the doubles point by picking up wins at Nos. 1 and 3. At No. 3, the Hoosiers were up 7-5 and serving for the match, but the Illini's Leila Cehajic and Brianna Knue fought off several match points to break serve and sway the momentum of the match. Now, down 7-6 the Fighting Illini duo won the final three games to cap their comeback and a pick up 9-7 win.
"I thought that we weren't very positive at first during doubles, but that changed when Leila and Brianna came back," Lama said. "That momentum carried into singles where we came out strong."
The Illini dominated singles, led by Webb's 6-0, 6-0 victory at No. 5.
"Michelle played incredibly well today," Lama said. "It was perhaps her best singles performance of the year. After the Purdue match, we talked about making some tactical adjustments and today I thought she did a fabulous job."
"I had a tough loss against Purdue and was struggling with my confidence," Webb said. "But today I was more aggressive and mixed up my ground strokes because my strength is being at the net."
The Illini won in straight-sets in each remaining match.
At No. 4, Knue swept Sophie Rychlik, 6-2, 6-1 to clinch the win for Illinois.
Fazlic closed out her Illini career with a 6-4, 6-0 triumph at No. 3, while at No.1 Jennifer McGaffigan, ranked 66th nationally, picked up her 20th win of the season, 6-4, 3-2 ret. over Linda Tran. It is the third year in a row McGaffigan has posted at least 20 singles wins.
Tiffany Eklov extended her career best winning streak to eight with a 6-4, 6-4 win at No. 2.
"I thought it was very important to win our final three matches and establish some momentum heading into the Big Ten tournament," Lama said. "We're not sure yet who we'll play, but it's a great feeling to not have to play on Thursday. We're going to take two days off and begin focusing on the tournament come Tuesday."
The Illini return to action this weekend as they host the Big Ten tournament, which begins Thursday morning. Tournament seedings will be released Monday.
Today's Illinois Results:
Singles:
1. #66 Jennifer McGaffigan (ILL) def. Linda Tran (IU) 6-4, 3-2 ret. 2. Tiffany Eklov (ILL) def. Sarah Batty (IU) 6-4, 6-4 3. Eldina Fazlic (ILL) def. Karie Schlukebir (IU) 6-4, 6-0 4. Brianna Knue (ILL) def. Sophie Rychlik (IU) 6-2, 6-1 5. Michelle Webb (ILL) def. Jessica Groth (IU) 6-0, 6-0 6. Jessica Barki (ILL) Default
Doubles: 1. #20 Webb/McGaffigan (ILL) def. Schlukebir/Tran (IU) 8-6 2. Martina Grimm/Sarah Batty (IU) def. Fazlic/Eklov (ILL) 8-6 3. Leila Cehjic/Knue (ILL) def. Rychlik/Groth (IU) 9-7
